Barista by Day, Bartender by Night
"Tsk. Before you head back, run two laps around the lake, nyang."
Shinano stood with her arms folded, looking down at Katsune as she clicked her tongue.
"Ah, I can't hear you! Senpai! Not a single word! Right now the only thing in my ears is the chocolate fairy singing!"
Katsune was sprawled flat across the table, waving a hand in dismissal. Whipped cream was smeared thick over her lips as she mumbled, and every last trace of the glamorous magical girl from the broadcasts had long since evaporated.
Sssslurp. The sound of her draining the final shards of ice from the bottom of the frappé through a straw filled the quiet café. Katsune set the empty cup down and stared at the bare tart plate with the happiest expression in the world, and the most guilt-ridden. Whether she was looking at her own face reflected among the brown crumbs, or at the future version of herself who would step onto a scale tomorrow morning, I couldn't tell. Either way, it was far too late to take any of it back.
Watching that glittering, pitiful underside of an idol magical girl from behind the counter, a perfectly natural question occurred to me.
"Ah. By the way..."
When I spoke, Katsune—still face-down—rolled her eyes just a little.
"When magical girls fight, why do they broadcast it? If civilians get caught up in it, it's dangerous."
A battle against Aberrations was real combat, the kind where lives hung in the balance. By any ordinary person's common sense, there was no obvious reason to drag cameras along, dress in flashy costumes, and fight while drawing the public eye. No matter how I turned it over, risking that much just to go on the air still seemed strange.
At the question, Shinano's lazily swaying tail went still. She slowly lifted her head and stared straight at me. Her green eyes narrowed as if she were studying me, then she gave her tail a small flick and spoke.
"Then let me ask you something, nyang. Where do you think a magical girl's power comes from, nyang?"
"Mana, isn't it?"
I answered as if it were obvious. A magical girl burning an energy called mana to work miracles—that was common sense, or so I'd thought. Shinano shook her head.
"That's not entirely wrong, nyang."
A faint sigh slipped out with the words, as if she couldn't help it.
"Mana is the physical fuel that turns the engine, but a magical girl isn't just a machine, nyang. When she receives the public's gaze and admiration—that is, Cheer Power—she breaks past her limits and draws out a far greater strength, nyang."
Katsune's fingers, still sprawled on the table, twitched. She fiddled with the fork resting on the empty tart plate, the gesture of someone who was not hearing this for the first time. Or perhaps it was a story she lived through with her whole body, every single day.
I set the dishcloth down and looked at Shinano. Cheer Power. So the reason magical girls carried on like idols wasn't mere vanity. It was tied directly to survival. Smiling for the cameras, fighting beneath the fans' gaze—all of it.
"The cheers that overcome fear. The wish to be protected. And the attention of millions pouring in from beyond the camera. That is what holds up a magical girl's fragile mind, and what explosively amplifies her mana output, nyang."
Shinano's fingers tapped slowly against the table.
"The Association and the broadcasters who try to milk it are infuriating, but paradoxically, it's also true that the broadcast system has sent magical girls' survival rates soaring, nyang."
No sooner had her serious explanation ended—
"Aaaaah!"
Katsune shot upright from the table and started clawing at her hair. Glossy black locks flew in every direction.
"That's right! That damned cheering! The attention! The broadcasts! It's all well and good, but thanks to that system my shikigami have gotten seriously spoiled!"
As if deeply wronged, she thrust a hand toward the counter and launched into a passionate rant.
"Originally, commanding shikigami was simple. You offered them a proper tribute and that was the end of it! But these days the little monsters have completely adapted to the broadcast system, I'm telling you!"
Her voice climbed higher.
"That raccoon brat demands ten whole fried chickens as a late-night snack the second a fight ends, and that insane fox threatens to sandbag the next battle if the video of her big moment doesn't break a million views!"
Tears welled at the corners of Katsune's eyes.
"And on top of that, they keep dropping suggestive lines for the viewers to hear... Seriously, I don't even know anymore if I'm a magical girl or just some clout-chasing broadcaster... haah..."
With a deep sigh, Katsune melted back onto the table. Her black hair fanned out across it like a spread fan, and the shoulders of her designer jacket sagged without so much as a twitch.
From behind the counter I quietly poured a glass of water. A fox who blackmailed with view counts, and a raccoon who did business in fried chicken. Today I learned for the first time that the world of magical girls was complicated in a direction quite different from anything I had imagined.
When I set the glass on her table, I watched her reach out with only a hand, still face-down, and drag it toward herself. Shinano rested her chin on her palm and looked down at the sight. I had expected the scolding to resume, but once again it didn't.
Listening to Katsune's complaints like that, I realized the sun's red afterimage, sinking over the lake, had vanished completely beyond the ridge. The orange natural light that had been seeping into the café slowly retreated, and a soft, warm indoor glow began to fill its place. Outside the window the lake was no longer the glittering surface from earlier. It had become a black mirror, rippling gently in the dark. In other words, it was time to change clothes.
"It's break time, but... since we have a guest, I'll just change and be right back."
I set the dishcloth on the counter as I spoke, and Shinano grinned, tail swishing. Katsune, who had been listening, started gathering up her handbag.
"Huh? Then do I have to leave?"
As she moved to stand, Shinano stopped her with a flick of one finger.
"From here on, this place becomes a bar. A place for adults, nyang."
Bewilderment spread plainly across Katsune's face.
"A bar? Out here in the middle of nowhere, stuck in the mountains?"
"Ah. For the record, I can only serve alcohol to active magical girls while they're transformed."
I added that as I untied my apron, and Katsune tilted her head.
"The reason was... what was it again?"
When I started to stammer, Shinano crossed her arms and spoke as if she had no choice.
"You can't suddenly face Aberrations while drunk, nyang. You have to drink while burning the alcohol off with the enhanced body of your transformed state. That's how you stay able to respond the instant something happens, nyang."
"...No. Hold on."
Katsune's voice had gone hollow.
"You want me to transform again, out of this perfect clocked-out state, just to have one drink? That's exactly the same as your boss forcing a company dinner on you after you've already gone home!"
"If it bothers you that much, go down the mountain and crack a canned beer from the convenience store, nyang."
Shinano shot back without mercy.
"Or go home and film videos for your shikigami, nyang. The choice is yours, nyang."
"Aaaack! That is so mean!"
Katsune tore at her hair.
"Haah... fine. I said fine! I'll do it, whatever!"
She yanked a bundle of talismans from her handbag and scattered them into the air. The fluttering papers blazed with light and wrapped around her body. Particles of brilliant light swallowed her casual clothes, and in their place a pure-white shrine-maiden transformation outfit wove itself together with exquisite precision. Had there been cameras, she would have flashed a dazzling wink and recited her signature entrance line. Here, there was no one but a great senior magical girl and me.
"...Transformation, complete."
The listless voice drooped through the café. The costume itself was that of a radiant shrine maiden who could send tens of thousands of fans into a frenzy, but the person inside was the same thoroughly worn-out woman as a moment ago. A brilliant transformation outfit paired with dead eyes made for a strangely incongruous sight.
Katsune dragged her heavy feet back to the counter stool, dropped into it, and planted her forehead straight onto the table. Thud. Pure-white sleeves spread limply across the surface.
"Hurry up, change, come back down, and give me a drink... something strong..."
I glanced back once from the foot of the stairs leading up to the second floor. A magical girl in a dazzling shrine-maiden outfit had her forehead planted on a café table, groaning for alcohol, and beside her a cat-eared former magical girl was grinning.
Upstairs in my room I changed into my bartender's clothes and came straight back down to the first floor. Calling it a bartender's outfit was generous. It was nothing flashy—just a neatly pressed dress shirt with a black vest over it. Still, the sun had set and the character of the place was changing, and I wanted at least the feeling that the shift had changed with it. Changing neatly in my room before I came back out. That was my own rule.
When I came down the stairs and stepped behind the counter, Katsune's eyes swept me up and down. Cheek resting on the table, she pushed her lips out in a pout.
"Ehh? What, that's it?"
Disappointment was written plain across her face.
"And here I thought a secret hidden bar meant you'd come down in a sparkling tailcoat like in the movies, or a flashy tuxedo, or at least some ridiculously sharp tie... Even the guys at host clubs dress fancier than that..."
It was an honest, shameless complaint. I answered with nothing but a quiet, easy smile and walked over to the wall cabinet where ordinary café desserts and teacups sat. I released an invisible lock and slid it gently aside.
Rrrrk.
The ordinary wooden cabinet glided open, and the true space hidden behind it revealed itself. Dozens of cocktail liqueurs and whiskeys glittered under soft backlighting. Syrups in every color lined up like jewels, and crystal glasses shone clear beneath the lights, packed in dense rows.
"Eck...?! What, something like that was hidden behind the wall?!"
Katsune's ruby eyes, which had been grumbling only a moment ago, went wide as a child's the instant they landed on the brilliantly shining bottles. I could see her fingers fidgeting where they clutched the sleeve of her shrine-maiden outfit.
I lightly straightened a button on my vest and reached toward the stage that had just opened for me.
"This is my magic."
It wasn't a miracle like the magical girls', flying through the sky or firing beams of light. Just my own magic, the kind that melted a weary heart. Even I thought the line was pretty cringeworthy once it left my mouth, but it suited the opening of night at this sanctuary well enough.
Shinano, watching the whole thing at her ease from the counter seat, broke into a thoroughly satisfied grin.
"Heh heh heh. You know how to put on a little style, nyang."
Her green eyes drifted slowly over the newly revealed display.
"Good. Then, with that magic of yours, make this kitty one devastatingly cold, dry martini, nyang. And be generous with the olives, nyang."
"Would you like to add 'shaken, not stirred' to that?"
"Don't stir it at all. Shake it."
Shinano smiled, eyes narrowing. Smiling myself, I began to prepare a martini for her.